Training Day (2001)

Cast includes:
CHARACTER	ACTOR/ACTRESS	RATING
Detective Alonzo Harris	Denzel Washington
Officer Jake Hoyt	Ethan Hawke
Roger	Scott Glenn
Sara	Eva Mendes	-
Smiley	Cliff Curtis
Sniper	Raymond Cruz
Moreno	Noel Gugliemi	-
Paul	Dr. Dre	½
Jeff	Peter Greene	-
Tim	Nick Chinlund	-
Mark	Jaime P. Gomez	-
Blue	Snoop Dogg
Sandman's Wife	Macy Gray
Lisa Hoyt	Charlotte Ayanna	-
Detective Doug Rosselli	Harris Yulin	-
Stan Gursky	Tom Berenger	-
Captain Lou Jacobs	Raymond J. Barry	-

Review

Denzel Washinton's Detective Alonzo Harris is like the antihero to end all antiheroes. He makes Dirty Harry into Undirty Harry. But unlike the traditional cool antihero, Alonzo Harris is dangerously volatile, going off in every direction. His character is so over-the-top that whatever realism the filmmakers were trying to convey here – which they no doubt did – is effectively thrown out of the window. It's not that the film doesn't make sense from a plot-logical point of view, it's just that Washington and writer David Ayer seem so worried that Harris won't be authentic or hard-hitting enough that they cannot curb themselves. The character is like a caricature of overblown movie characters. The fine performances of Ethan Hawke and Scott Glenn didn't deserve to end up in such a hyperbolic film. There are also a number of musicians making cameos here, and for the likes of Macy Gray and Dr. Dre it is quite evident why their film careers didn't take off. Snoop Dogg, on the other hand, shows he's got serious talent in his one scene – incidentally one of the film's best. Washington won the Best Actor award at the 74th Academy Awards. Ethan Hawke was nominated for Best Supporting Actor, but lost to Jim Broadbent for Iris.